Winter Cycling - Even studded tires have their limits

Ridicululously cold today after a light snow followed by melting temperatures here in Montreal. The bike paths were clear in some areas but other areas were expanses of sheer ice. Flat in some areas and heavily textured in others where there was enough snow to turn to slush and then freeze after people walked and bicycled through it.
OK So I only did about a round trip of 30km - but it was a bit of a struggle. The frozen ice would make steering difficult where it wasn't flat and even taking things slow, I decided to get off and walk down a couple ice covered hills.

I'm running Nokian 240's and on the flat areas the snick of the carbide tips digging into the ice was reassuring, but some test braking also indicated that braking on ice was nowhere near what it is on pavement.

But you stayed upright, right ?

I'm in Montreal as well. Running schwalbe marathon winters. Really happy with the performance. Went trough Jean-Mance parc on Monday, felt confident riding (slowly!) on a path so iced up I would not have walked on it. Aside from that test, I'm trying to drive like I don't have the spikes, keeping the extra grip as insurance.

I found out about the limits of studded tires only a couple of days after buying mine (marathon winters, 3 winters ago) when overconfidence took me into an icy turn in just the same way as if it was summertime.

If you have an outdoor rink nearby you can (relatively) safely go test the limits of the grip which the tires afford, particularly when braking. It's noticeable, no doubt, but it doesn't do miracles either.

Nevertheless, it is pretty cool when, walking, I repeatedly come close to slipping and falling on my bum on an icy path which I was confidently riding on only a couple of hours before.

But you stayed upright, right ?
LOL a couple 'white knuckle' experiences but no crashes- thanks!This is one of those ocassions where I was deliberately checking out some extreme conditions just to see how well something did or didn't perform.


When I recommend something in the store I like to be able to give the customer a really good idea of what to expect. Yup - these took me places where I'd probably have had trouble walking but keeping the speed down was really important too.

I'm in Montreal as well. Running schwalbe marathon winters. Really happy with the performance. Went trough Jean-Mance parc on Monday, felt confident riding (slowly!) on a path so iced up I would not have walked on it. Aside from that test, I'm trying to drive like I don't have the spikes, keeping the extra grip as insurance.



Those are really nice tires! The only reason I ended up with Nokians myself was because at the time Schwalbe hadn't started using carbide studs yet.


I'm in the Lachine area and driving here might be different than downtown. How do you find traffic in the winter?

So far so good. I change my route to take me off major roads when there's snow lying around. I also leave home pretty early so not too much traffic to deal with.

we have no snow down here in GTA area.

we have no snow down here in GTA area.

Yep, so far this must be the warmest and most snow-free winter I have ever seen in GTA.